Method of preparing textile yarn



Patented Jan. 14,1930- AUBREY E. MEYER, OF PARIS, FRANCE METHOD OFPREPARING TEX TILE YARN No Drawing. Original application filed October21, 1924. Divided and this September 30, 1924, Serial No. 740,841, andin Great Britain application filed November 30, 1929. Serial No.410,888.

any way desired as by placing the cop in a twisting frame and rotatingit in a direction to untwist the yarn. It was further pointed out insaid specification that instead of taking the spun yarn that had alreadybeen copped, and gumming, untwisting and recopping it, the yarn could begummed during the spinning operation, i. e., after the twist has been.put in it b the spinning of the yarn, and then after rying it could bewound upon the cop or pirn; after which the twist could be taken out asdescribed.

I have found in practice in producing such yarn, that some of the fibresor groups of fibres are caused to separate from other fibres or groupsof fibres due to the detwist "ing operation, the dried gum bein somewhatruptured along the length of t e yarn by the detwisting, permitting someof the fibresto thus somewhat separate, in the same general manner asroughly illustrated by the loosening, bulging or separating of fibres orgroups of fibres in the untwisting of a string or rope when one takeshold of the same and holds it at one point while turning it at anotherpoint in a direction to take out the twist. This somewhat separation offibres or groups of fibres one from another tends to reduce the tensilestrength of the gummed untwisted yarn from what it would be if thefibres in their untwisted condition could be held and cemented togetherin close contact one with another.

I have also found that the detwisting does not occur uniformly along thelength of the yarn. For example, if a yarn has 17 twists to the inch,and after it is gummed and dried, it is twisted in the reversedirection, say 12 times to leave only 5 twists per inch; it may be thatdue to heavier gumming at some portions, or other factors causing thefibres of the yarn to be bound together more firmly at one portion thanat another, the resulting yarn may actually have a few twists in onedirection for a short length, and no twist or even a reverse twist inanother adjacent short length. This is not objectionable in somefabrics, but it is objectionable in other fabrics, such for example aswhere a-smooth, soft uniform surface hav- The invention relates tomethod of preparing textile yarn, and more particularly to an improvedmethod of producing the kind of yarn set forth in my United StatesLetters Patent N 0. 1,295,821, granted February 25, 1919, for textileyarn and method of making the same. The yarn referred to is one fromwhich the twist of the fibres has been partially or wholly removed bygumming and untwisting.

The general character of the yarn and fabric to which the inventionrelates and the advantages of the untwisted yarn and resulting fabric,are fully set forth in my said Letters Patent and need not be repeatedhere.

The object of this invention is to improve the quality of the untwistedyarn and fabrics woven or knitted therefrom, by improving the uniformityof the yarn structurei. e., twist or detwist, and/or its tensilestrength. The invention consists in the novel method of preparing theyarn which is hereinafter set forth according to the preferred manner ofpracticing the same. The invention will be more particularly pointed outin the appended claims. p

As pointed out in my aforesaid patent specification, heretofore I haveproduced gummed untwisted yarn in the following manner: I took the yarnafter it had been spun in the usual manner, from sliver, roving, etc.,and wound upon suitable bobbins or cops, and having the necessary twistfor being so handled and for permitting it to be gummed, and I thengummed it in any suitable manner, as for example by passing it overgumming rolls or through a suitable basin containing the adhesive, andafter it had been gummed, I brushed it, if desired, as it left the rollsor basin, and then dried it as it left the brushes, if used, so that thegum would bind the fibres together. I then took out a substantial amountor substantially all of the twist, as may be desired in the particularcase, depending upon the gum wholly or in part to hold the fibrestogether so as to give the yarn its necessary strength for use informing fabrics of the interlaced strand type. The twist was taken outin ing a high sheen is desirable. Fabrics woven from the improved yarnhave the de- 'be kept or brought into close contact, as the case may be,and be cemented or bonded together in that position if .the gum 1 ssufii ciently wet or moist, either at the time of the detwisting orafter the detwisting and before the use of the yarn, so as to have thegum sticky or tacky enough to cause the fibres to be held down in thisosltion or to be brought back into this position and 0e mented there,as'the case maybe. This may be accomplished by detwisting the gummedyarn while the m is yet wet or tacky. But this method 0 procedure israther undesirable or troublesome due to difiiculties in carrying outthe same, among which I might mention slow operation, added expense, andthe fact that I have found that when the detwisting is carried out withthe gum in a condition tacky to the touch, the yarn collects lint in thetraveler? through which it passes in the detwisting operation. It istherefore, perhaps in many cases, preferable in accomplishing thedesired end, to detwist the yarn with the gum dry and thereafter wet ormois en the gummed yarn to make the gum sufiiciently sticky or tacky tocause the untwisted fibres to be drawn or flattened down in closecontact, in which position they are recemented by the tacky gum.

It might be attempted to allow the gum to sufliciently dry before thedetwisting so that it is not tacky to the touch or contact and thusavoid the traveler difliculties above mentioned in detwisting the yarnwhile the gum is tacky to this extent, and yet'not allow the drying toprogress to a point where the gum will be sulficiently dry to cause itto crack and allow the fibres to separate during the detwisting; butwhile this may be successfully accomplished under certain conditionswhere the entire process can be carefully watched and the detwistincarried on at exactly the desired stage of ryness of the gum, yet ingeneral practice it is troublesome, uneconomical and inadvisable to tryand handle the matter in this way be cause if the'yarn should bedetwisted with the gum too wet the foregoing difiiculties willbeencountered, and if it should have dried .too much the resulting lack oftensile strength might not be noted until the yarn had been shipped andwas put to use in weaving where it would be too late to rectify thetrouble without-serious cost. Furthermore, it may well be that in theactual use of the yarns the yarn may be gummed at one time or at oneplace and then be detwisted at a much later date, or even at an entirelydifferent place and under such circumstances it may be impossible tocarry on the detwisting before the gum became too dry. Therefore,inorder to insure the desired tensile strength without incurring thedifliculties above mentioned it is important to moisten the gum as abovestated, after the detwisting has taken place, so as to insurerecementing of the fibres.

The detwisted gummed yarn may be moistened or wetted while on thebobbins, such for example by steaming the bobbins or by sprinkling thebobbins or by soaking them in cold water, or by soaking and steaming, ineach case allowing the gum to dry before use; or the gummed untwistedyarn may be suitably wetted or moistened while it is being run frombobbin to bobbin, etc. The wetting or moistening of the gum may becarried out in any manner so long as the gum is made sufiiciently stickyor tacky to insure the recementing of the somewhat separated fibres orgroups of fibres, and preferably to insure the flattening down of thefibres or groups of fibres in close contact one with another and therecementing of the fibres in this flattened down close contact position.On the other hand, if the wetting is to be done while the yarn isrunning from bobbin to bobbin or in any other manner than while the yarnis at rest on a bobbin, the wetting should not be carried to such anextent that the gum will become so soft as to let the fibres pull apartwhile the yarn is being st'antial tensile strength, such as for weaving,

etc.

I have found that the yarn when thus produced, prepared or treated,-i.e., having the gum moist or tacky at the time of or subsequent to thedetwisting, has its tensile strength considerabl im roved.

But to insure uni ormlty in the degree of twist or detwist along theyarn as hereinabove pointed out, it is also desirable to subject thedetwisted gummed yarn to a certain degree of tension while the gum is inthe moist or tacky condition, because b doing this the adjacentunequally twiste 1 sections of the yarn are permitted to, and areassisted in, their natural tendency to equalize their twist, so as tomake the twist substantially uniform along the length of the yarn. Sincethe gum on the yarn is in a tacky condition this unequal twist indifferent sections of the yarn will be readily equalized. The advantagesof putting the yarn under tension for this purpose might be explained bythe following rough or general analogy:

For example, if onetakes two or three yarns or threads and twists themtogether say for twenty turns for a 6 inch length, and then grips theyarn at the end of this 6 inch length to prevent any interference withthe twisted 6 inches, and then twists the adjacent 6 inches for say fiveturns, and then grips the end of this 6 inches having 5 twists, and putsa reverse twist in the next adjacent 6 inches, and allows the resulting18 inches of yarn to be slack, there may-be some neutralization in thetwist along the three adjacent sections of 6 inches each, but theneutralization of the twists will not be nearly so complete as if the'18inches of yarn is drawn out taut. The tensioning of the yarn will assistthe natural tendency of these sections to neutralize their respectivetwists so as to bring the twist throughout the 18 inches substantiallyuniform or much more uniform. This is a mere rough analogy of what takesplace. Also, by tensioning the yarn when the gum is moist orsufiiciently tacky, the fibres of the yarn are brought together orcaused to lay upon each other with closer contact fora firmer or closerbinding together by the moist yarn. The result is therefore a strongermore uniform yarn, and fabrics woven from such yarn are of better, moreuniform texture, with a smoother surface giving a more pleasing softerappearance and better sheen in fabrics having this characteristic.

The operation may be carried out in various ways and by various kinds ofapparatus, but I have found the following method of handling thegummeddetwisted yarn, to put it under tension while the gum is moist ortacky, to give good resultsi. e., the bobbins are mounted so as to havethe yarn drawn therefrom, and the strands of yarn are then drawn off ofthe bobbins, passed through a suitable moistening device, such as over aroller running in water, from which roller the yarn is passed through adrying zone to' partially dry out the yarn, but not beyond the tackystage, for the purpose of increasing the tensile strength of the yarn sothat it may be put under the desired tenslon, and from this drying zonethe yarn is run between a set of rollers and thence to another set of'rollers, the peripheral velocity of the second pair of rollers beingslightlyv in excess of that of the first pair, so as to put the .yarnunder the desired tensile stress, and from this second set of rollersthe yarn may again be wound upon bobbins. The drying of the yarn as itpasses through what I have termed the heated zone, may be accomplished,for example, by winding the yarn back and forth between two revolvingrollers, as is well understood in the art, so that as the yarn passesalong from the Wetting roll it goes back and forth over these two rollsin the drying zone before it goes to the tensioning rolls, and beneaththe rolls between which the yarn is wound a suitable heating device mabe arranged such as a set of gas burners. l3 various elements of whichare well known in the art for other uses, the yarn may be first wellwetted to insure the'desired degree of thorough softening of the gumthroughout, and then the excess moisture will be taken out by thedrying, sov as to increase the tensile strength of the gummed yarnsufficiently for it to stand the tensioning operation. I merely mentionthis apparatus as one means of producing the desired yarn.

This application is a division of my copending application Serial No.740,841, filed September 30, 1924, for method of preparing textile yarn,and resulting products, which application in turn is in the nature of acontinuation in part of an application filed by me November 12, 1923,Serial No. 674,257, for method of preparing textile yarn. In thisapplication I claim that specie of my invention wherein the process iscarried out by detwisting the gummed yarn while the gum is moist orsoft, whereas in my said copending application I claim the inventiongenerically as to process and resulting products, and also that specieof my invention, described herein as the preferred procedure, whereinthe process is carried out by detwisting the yarn While the gum is drybeyond the stage where it is tacky to the touch, and after it has beenthus detwisted, moistening or wetting it.

In the foregoing description and the claims I make use of the terms gumand gumming merely for brevity and convenience, and-I do not'wish to beunderstood as limiting myself to a gum in the strict sense of the wordas distinguished from any other form of suitable adhesive, but wish tobe understood as including the use of any suit able form of adhesive,the important thing being that a suitable adhesive is present in theyarn when the same'is untwisted, so as to bind the fibres together. Anysuitable adhesive may be used that can be readily dissolved from thefabric, such for example as glue, fish glue, gelatin, starch, gumarabic, rosin, solvent rubber, etc., admixed or not with suitableadditional matters. Of these gumining agents perhaps starch is the mostgenerally used and best known adhesive in the textile industry, andsince it is inexpensive and its characteristics and working propertiesare well known in the trade it is perhaps the most satisfactory adhesiveagent to be used for gumming yarn. The solvent will be chosen inaccordance with the character of the adhesive, as will be understood inthe art.

The following compositions of adhesives have been found suitable inpractice:

(a) 1 kg. joiners glue dissolved in 10 liters of water, and

y this arrangement, the

(b) 25 grams of gum arabic and 91 grams of starch dissolved in 5 litersof water.

As pointed out in my above-mentioned patent, the interlocking or theinterlacing of the yarn or threads of the fabric (made from the yarn)one on or with the other, gives the fabric the necessary strength afterthe adhesive has been dissolved from the yarn or threads.

Where in the specification or claims I use the word untwisted oruntwi'sting or detwisted or detwisting referring to the yarn, I use itin its ordinary meaning, namely, as referring to yarn havingTa partiallyor wholly removed previous twist, and do not mean by such words to referto yarn which has either not been twisted at all, or has been slightlytwisted and remains in that condition. Also, where I refer to increasingthe tensile strength, or to a yarn of increased tensile strength, itwill be understood that I have reference to a comparison of the yarnmade or prepared according to this invention with a yarn of the samesize and character as heretofore made by me under my said patent, i. e.,a yarn made of the same kind and length of fibre and of the same size.

While I have described my invention in detail according to the preferredmanner of carrying out the same, it will be obvious to those skilled inthe art, after understanding my invention, that changes andmodifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention, and I do not wish to be limited other than asindicated in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Let ters Patent, is:

1. Method of producing gummed untwisted textile yarn, which comprises'gumming a twisted yarn and then detwisting the yarn while the gum onthe yarn is sufficiently soft to facilitate a better detwisting of thefibres and the flattening down of the de twisted fibres.

2. Method of producing gummed untwisted textile yarn, which comprisesgumming a twisted yarn and then detwisting and ten,- sioning the yarnwhile the gum on the yarn is sufficiently wet to facilitate a betterdetwisting of the fibres and the flattening down of the detwistedfibres.

3. Method of producing gummed untwisted textile yarn, which comprisesgumming a twisted yarn and then detwisting the yarn while the gum on theyarn is sufliciently soft to facilitate a better detwisting of thefibres and the flattening down of the detwisted fibres, and thenpermitting the gum to dry on the yarn.

4. Method of producing gummed untwisted textile yarn, which comprisesgumming a twisted yarn, drying the gum on the yarn, wetting the gum onthe yarn sufficient to facilitate a better detwisting of the fibres andthe flattenin down of' the detwisted fibres, and then etwisting the yarnwhile the gum is thus wet.-

5. Method of producing gummed untwisted textile yarn, which comprisesgumming a twisted yarn, drying the gum on the yarn, wetting the gum onthe yarn sufficient to facilitate a better detwisting of the fibres andthe flattening down of the detwisted fibres, and then detwisting andtensioning the yarn while the gum is wet, to cause the detwisted fibresto lie more closely together and to equalize the detwist along ghe yarn,and then permitting the yarn to ry. j

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

AUBREY E. MEYER.

